Haas presented its first major developments of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago. The VF-24 was fitted with new floor bulkheads, new mirrors, new cooling outlets and new rear brake duct inlets.
The two drivers from the American team were competitive in Shanghai with the new parts. Kevin Magnussen finished in 10th position in the sprint race, while Nico Hülkenberg reached Q3 in qualifying for the main race and scored a point on Sunday by crossing the line in ninth place.
However, the sprint format in China prevented Haas from carrying out meaningful comparative testing, which will happen again this weekend in Miami, also hosting a sprint race. The team will therefore have to wait for Imola to compare the data of the new and old versions of its car, during a traditional weekend.
“Wind tunnel numbers aren’t everything, you know.”said team principal Ayao Komatsu at the Chinese Grand Prix press conference. “How the car actually performs compared to the wind tunnel… What we measure on the track this year is a little bit different than what we expected from the wind tunnel. So we need to understand that correctly.”
Haas F1 Team Director Ayao Komatsu with Kevin Magnussen.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
The Japanese spoke to Motorsport.com on the subject after Haas’ good weekend in China: “I can’t sit here and tell you if the improvements worked 100% or not. Since it was a sprint weekend, we couldn’t do any real direct comparisons or anything. ‘other, but we could measure in EL1. It wasn’t about comparing, just seeing if there was a glaring problem or not. And we didn’t see any. We therefore think that [les améliorations] work. But I’m not saying that’s 100% the case.”
“But until it has been proven that [les évolutions] don’t work, I have to trust the process. This is why we decided to make changes to both cars. The competition is so tight, if we don’t trust each other, what’s the point? So that’s what we’re doing and for the moment, we don’t see anything to worry about.”
However, for the Miami Grand Prix which will be Haas’ first home race of the season, Komatsu expects a performance gain “very weak” : “We bring [le package] in three phases. This step [en Chine] was, I would say, a small step. But Miami will be even smaller, then Imola will be another small step. So it’s a gradual process.”
“If you gain a tenth, you know how much it changes the position in qualifying… And a position of [plus] in qualifying can determine whether you’re going to spend your first stint in traffic or in the open, right? This has a considerable effect. So, even if itseems like a small difference in lap times, the result can be huge.”
